GEM E-Bulletin: December 1, 2010

The Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) is a New York City based group that educates, organizes and mobilizes educators, parents, students and communities to defend public education against the corporate and government policies that underfund, undermine and privatize our public school system. GEM advocates both within and outside the UFT for the equality and quality of public education services and the rights of school workers. (Read more). Check out our points of unity and our blog. (http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/)

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GEM opposes Cathie Black as chancellorStill time to say NO to Cathleen Black and The Chancellor “Compromise”

After serving the community for over 100 years, our space and programs are being threatened. Eva Moskowitz wants a new private HSA Charter School to co-locate in the PS/MS 165/Mott Hall 2 Campus and over time phase out these three outstanding public schools.P.S./M.S. 165 is renowned for its model Dual Language program, Gifted and Talented Program, and programs for students with special needs. It has a long history of community enrichment. It is not a failing school. Yet, a charter school without this long history of success wants to deprive P.S./M.S. 165 and Mott Hall II of space and resources in order to implement their own programming.” The school’s community rapidly mobilized and loudly opposed the Moskowitz Charter at their Community Education Council – CEC3.

Bill Gates has some advice to state superintendents on how to deal with their budget crises. Don’t reward teachers for Master’s Degrees. Those don’t matter, nor does seniority. Bill Gates “also urges an end to efforts to reduce class sizes” and “You can’t fund reforms without money. And there is no money.” I guess that’s where his own foundation’s $30 billion (with another $30 billion on the way from Warren Buffet) comes in…..

The odd complaint is that donors to charter schools include some hedge fund managers.

Or maybe not so odd. Teachers unions and the public school monopoly have long benefitted from wielding a moral trump card. They claimed to care for children, and caring was defined solely by how much taxpayers spent on schools.

That moral claim is being turned on its head as more Americans come to understand that teachers unions and the public bureaucracy are the main obstacles to reform. Movies such as “Waiting for ‘Superman'” and “The Lottery” are exposing this to the larger American public, leaving the monopolists to the hapless recourse of suggesting that reformers are merely the tools of hedge fund philanthropists.

The Manhattan protest was sponsored by the Grassroots Education Movement, which was co-founded by Norman Scott, a retired public school teacher. Mr. Scott says the group has nothing to do with the United Federation of Teachers, and that it’s comprised of New York City teachers and parents who have been “adversely affected by charter schools.” Mr. Scott told us he and several others are developing their own film, “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for ‘Superman.'” That’s a nod to Davis Guggenheim, who directed Al Gore’s climate change documentary before he did “Superman.”

We saw a trailer for this anti-“Superman” film, which denounces most of the leading advocates for charter schools. The irony is that most of those criticized are Democrats or noted liberals who’ve been mugged by public school reality.